Effects of sodium pyruvate on ameliorating metabolic acidosis

Abstract

Objective

To examine the effects of sodium pyruvate (SP) on metabolic acidosis.

Methods

For the in vivo experiments, we evaluated effects of SP on an ammonium chloride (NH₄Cl)-induced hyperchloremic acidosis rat model. SP was infused at overall doses of 2, 4, and 6 mmol·kg^{− 1} for the SP₁, SP₂, and SP₃ groups, respectively. Treatment with sodium bicarbonate (SB) was used as a positive control (2 mmol·kg^{− 1}), and treatment with normal saline (NS) was used as a volume control (2 mL·kg^{− 1}). Blood was sampled from the ophthalmic venous plexus for pH, blood gases, electrolytes, glucose, creatinine (Cr), and urea analysis after injection. For the in vitro experiment, propionate was applied to induce intracellular acidosis in human endothelial cells. Intracellular pH (pHi) was fluorimetrically measured after the addition of SP.

Results

In the in vivo study, the pH of SP₁ group showed no significant difference compared with that of the NS group. The SP₂ and SP₃ groups had a higher pH than the NS group (P < 0.01). The SP₃ group had a higher pH than the SB group (P < 0.05) and SP₁ group (P < 0.05). Moreover, SP treatment ameliorated the abnormality of calcium and decreased the blood potassium levels. The SP₃ group had higher glucose levels than SP₁ group (P < 0.05). No significant differences were observed between all the groups in the plasma Cr and urea levels. In the in vitro study, the pHi increased immediately after the addition of SP.

Conclusion

The data suggest that intravascular treatment with SP represents a novel therapeutic strategy to ameliorate metabolic acidosis.

Keywords::

• blood gases
• glycometabolism
• metabolic acidosis
• pyruvate

Acknowledgments

The authors thank Na ZHANG and Peng-long LI for their invaluable assistance.

Declaration of interest

All authors have read and approved the manuscript for publication. No conflicts of interest, financial or otherwise, are declared by the authors. This study was supported by the National Natural Science Foundation of China (No. 31271001) and a grant from the National High Technology Research and Development Program of China (No. 2010AA021902).